


Marriage Contracts and Love

by Inspirationpersonified



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Ned Stark, Catelyn Tully Stark Bashing, Character Bashing, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 23:29:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28715040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inspirationpersonified/pseuds/Inspirationpersonified
Summary: When Hoster Tully forces the new Lord of Winterfell to marry his daughter in lieu of his brother, he gets an unexpected reply.He is reminded of why direwolves could never be tamed.
Relationships: Ashara Dayne/Ned Stark
Comments: 11
Kudos: 139





	Marriage Contracts and Love

Eddard Stark, the head of House Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North should have seen this coming. 

He had reached his position by sheer accident and hazard that had befallen his family in the past few months.

His sister had been kidnapped by the Crown Prince of the Seven Kingdoms. (Ned thought that it was more likely that she had run away from her betrothal to his best friend Robert Baratheon.)

His Elder brother in his infinite wisdom had gone to the Red Keep and demanded the Crown Prince's head. 

The Mad King had captured him and thrown him into the Black Cells.

Well, what did his dearly departed brother think would happen? 

Was the King, mad though he might be, supposed to wine and dine with the Heir to the North when he came screaming and screeching for the Crown Prince to face him and die a gruesome death? 

People whispered about the madness that ran in the Targaryens but Ned thought that those Valariyens were less volatile than the direwolves.

Otherwise, what madness had prompted his brother to go to the capital and make demands of their liege?

Not only that, but he had also brought Ethan Glover, Kyle Royce, Jeffory Mallister and Elbert Arryn with him.

Then, summons had arrived for his late father, Lord Rickard Stark who had Southern ambitions all his life. 

A few weeks later news had arrived of how everyone that had gone South on this ill-fated and ill-timed journey had been sent by the Mad King to meet The Stranger.

God save him from Wolf's blood that ran in his family and the idiotic decisions that led to the almost complete annihilation of a line that had ruled for more than 8000 years in the North.

Still, he and his younger brother were alive. Thanks to his foster father who had raised arms against the Mad King when he had ordered Jon Arryn to bring him the heads of his fosterlings. 

Still, this war which had started because the Crown Prince thought with his little head because maybe his bigger one was full of shit that stank the capital and his sister who wanted all the privileges that came with her birth but none of the responsibility would be the end of them all.

There had been a few skirmishes and fights but now, his elder brother's would-be good father was trying to rob a house that was already set on fire.

In general, Eddard Stark stayed as far away from politics as his position as a Second Son allowed.

But, now his father and brother were dead and hence, he came to sit upon the position of the Lord of Winterfell and everything that it entailed. 

Meanwhile, Hoster Tully wanted to fob off his elder daughter who had simpered at Brandon to him.

He had watched in silence as she had followed his brother like a young pup eager for any morsel of food from its master. 

It hadn't been his place to question the decisions of his father and so he had kept his thoughts about Lady Tully to himself.

But that didn't mean that he would spend the rest of his life trying to live up to a dead ghost.

He didn't know what poppycock had been fed to the Tullys that they simply couldn't understand his refusal to join his family with theirs.

The prevalent argument is that the contract signed earlier stated that the eldest daughter of House Tully would marry the son who would sit the throne of North.

In this case, the person being him. 

Eddard would like to think of himself as an honourable man. 

He had always thought that as long as his words or actions didn't make it impossible for him to have a restful sleep at night, he had committed no sin and hadn't wronged anyone knowingly.

However, it seemed that his silence was mistaken as cowardice. 

Had it been any other time, Eddard would have agreed to marry his brother's would-be wife to get enough swords for the fight ahead.

But the trouble was that he had already given his word to another.

He had already married Ashara Dayne - a noblewoman of House Dayne and a sister of Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning.

He had also received her letter that she was pregnant with his child.

So, what kind of craven would he be if he left his wife and his unborn child just to win a war?

Still, that didn't seem to make a difference to Hoster Tully or his beloved daughter.

"Nobody except your family knows that you had married her on the Isle of Faces. Your father and brother are dead. Your younger brother could be prevailed upon to keep his silence. Moreover, it could be argued that you married her under the Old Gods and nobody south of the Neck pays them any importance." 

Eddard Stark had been listening to the same words over and over again and his patience was wearing thin at this point. 

Didn't they think that if he could leave one woman for another, then he could also leave the second one for another?

What kind of a man would that make him? 

Even if his marriage was a secret, secrets always had a way of coming into light at the worst possible times.

Moreover, that was a redundant argument because he wouldn't leave the love of his life just to appease the anger of another Lord Paramount.

He knew his vassals and other Lord Paramounts would have heard about these arguments by now.

Nothing remained private when four Lord Paramounts and thousands of levies were gathered at the same place.

If he gave up his wife and child, he would spend the rest of his life giving up things.

His power, his prestige and even the fealty of Northerners. 

This argument was making him want to draw Ice and be done with the father-daughter pair.

What was worse was that Hoster Tully was adamant that he wouldn't join the rebellion unless his daughters were married to two Lord Paramounts. 

No matter how hard they pressed, he wouldn't budge from his decisions.

More importantly, he didn't have the heart to do it and he knew in his heart of hearts that if he ever dared to look at another woman after marrying Ashara, her brother, the Sword of Morning would take Ice and behead him before he could proclaim his rights as a Lord Paramount.

Nope.  
Nada.  
Zilch.

He hadn't lived long enough to end on Arthur Dayne's sword point. 

Eddard thought that being courageous was well and good enough but one had to have a healthy amount of fear to know when to step back and save their skin. 

Still, it was time to end this farce for once and all. 

Having honour was good but honouring things that you had no hand in was the height of folly.

It was time that he put everything he had learned on statecraft from Jon Arryn to good use and if that wasn't enough to quell these upstarts, the poison back in his luggage would do in a jiffy. 

He feels a sense of calm envelop him just like it always does before he hunts down prey and his face sets in that impeccable state that Robert always linked to a blank slate. 

His solution might spell disaster for the Rebellion. 

It could also spell the doom of his house but what is left of his house except for a greedy girl who couldn't look past her wants and a younger brother who aided and abetted her.

He knows Dorne will keep Ashara and his child safe.

They would look after their own for Dorne never rejected those of its blood, even bastards. 

This steels his resolve more than anything.

He knows that had this been before he had visited Winterfell last time and heard Brandon, Lyanna and Benjen mock him for his silence, he would have readily agreed.

He knows that had this same scenario occurred before he had realised that his family thought him more Arryn or Baratheon than Stark, his resolve would have crumbled and he would have spent the rest of his life with a woman who was more duty than anything else to him.

But his last visit had opened his eyes to what he had always ignored, intentionally or unintentionally.

His love for Ashara also gives him strength and the thought of filling Winterfell with the laughter of his chosen family spurs him on. 

He would rather die and damn everyone to the ravages of the Mad King than give up the only thing he has ever wanted in his life.

Well, Brandon did the deed with Barbery Dustin even though he knew he was promised to another.

Lyanna ran away with a Targaryen even though she was to wed another Lord Paramount.

So, why should he have to pay for the sins of his family?

He has had enough of people trying to manoeuvre him for their gains.

He was slow but he wasn't stupid.

Did everyone think that he couldn't see what they were planning and hoping for?

He could see their manipulations for what they were.

The Rebellion was being fought because his sister was kidnapped, allegedly. 

It was banded about that people had enough of the Targaryen's madness and tyranny.

But if they won, Robert would be made to sit the Iron Throne by Right of Conquest.

However, he would be made to sit that monstrosity because he would be the one to have the closest claim to the throne since he had Targaryen blood running in his veins. 

Jon Arryn was using the ready-made excuse of Lyanna's kidnapping to further his own goals.

It wasn't that he wasn't thankful to have kept his head when the Mad King demanded an execution but that didn't mean he couldn't see the bigger picture.

And the bigger picture also depicted him as the front runner of North so he not only had the responsibility to bring back his sister but he also had the responsibility to see that none of the North's sons and daughters died in a pointless war that was waged to benefit the other kingdoms.

He doesn't have to bend to the whims of an old man and his daughter who thought her beauty was enough to warrant a marriage.

These people weren't worth it for the sons and daughters of the North to give up their lives.

They also weren't worth it to make him give up his happiness. 

Still, he keeps silent as Hoster Tully once again reads the contract to him. 

All the clauses and subclauses.

Oh, he knows that it is all very convoluted and that the contract favours the Riverlands more than the North but he had also heard his father say that it was good enough to further Rickard Stark's plan.

Well, he would put an end to all these shenanigans.

When there is a lull in the one-sided conversation, he leans forward to emphasise his words.

He would say them once and once alone.

If the Tullys still didn't heed them then they can meet the Stranger and be glad to follow his father and brother on their journey to hell or heaven.

He gives the pair a sharp grin, teeth bared and sees how they lean away from him.

Good.

Let them remember that the blood of Royalty flows in his veins. 

A wolf wouldn't be cowed by a fish.

"Any particular reason for your smile, Lord Stark?" 

Hoster Tully is intelligent enough to know to question him but idiotic enough to be obstinate about his words.

Eddard taps the table between them with a Northern rhythm that never fails to make his blood sing in jubilation. 

"Tully, we seem to be at an impasse. You seem to think that just because my father signed these papers, I will follow the written word. An argument can also be made that I can take two wives. One married in front of the Old Gods and another in front of the New One's." 

"It would be easy enough to slip in poison to Ashara later on. Also, since fighting is going on and it can be said that swords don't have eyes, you can commission someone else to do the job for you and your daughter." 

He can see how that thought seems to delight the two but his words aren't finished and one shouldn't count their eggs before they are hatched.

He continues, "The thing is that if I marry your daughter, it will only be a marriage in the name. You see you are so eager to point out that I should stand in place of my brother so I can also make the same argument. I will let Benjen stand in for me because I have already married another and nobody in the North would fault me for my actions." 

His tapping picks up pace and Eddard keeps his temper at bay to make Hoster realise that his dreams will never be fulfilled.

"I'll make a fourth child, the third son of my father marry your daughter. A son who is younger than her by quite a few years and who will have enough reasons to hate her by then." 

"I will also make sure to see them wedded and bedded in the Olden Ways. She will never be free of Benjen and she will have no rights to her children." 

With a pondering look on his face, he further hammers in his point.

"The North has a lot of free lands so I wouldn't mind giving my brother and good sister new lands and a holdfast. But that doesn't mean they will have the people to till the lands, or knights for their protection or even maids to make their beds and clean their clothes because all those in service to a house are from nearby regions and not many will appreciate working in a holdfast who's lady is a Southerner. Especially, in these times." 

"As soon as their children reach the age of fostering, I will have them brought to Winterfell and send them to the houses that you will never agree to. The girls will be sent to House Mormont in Bear Islands who will teach the girls to fight and fuck like animals. The boys will be sent to Roose Bolton. He may begrudge me Winterfell but he will do as he is told as long as I have the rest of the North in my grip." 

He turns towards the girl who had dared to dream of being his wife.

He is mollified to see that she has lost all her colour in her face and seems to want to be as far away from him as possible.

But he isn't done with her yet and she will have to listen and dream and dread the picture he paints in front of her because anything less than that wouldn't satisfy him. 

He can't raise his voice or arms against her but it doesn't mean he can't put the fear of all her worst nightmares in her.

She would rue the day she thought to demand anything of a wolf.

"My Lady, have you heard of the Lord of House Bolton? His sigil is a flayed man and I know for a fact that he still carries on with that practice. It is an open secret between our two houses. As long as he keeps his misdemeanour in his parts of the land and as long as he doesn't cross the line, our houses don't try to meddle in each other's business." 

"Imagine if I give your boys to such a man, how will he treat them? A man who had thousands of years of repressed rage and envy against my house. Someone who is powerless to stage a coup against the Starks." 

Just as the girl opened her lips, Eddard smacks the table and it gave a resounding thump and the girl jumped in her seat.

"Now, you might think to use this situation to your advantage. You might plot to topple me and mine from our seat with the help of the Leech Lord. But would he be so ready to cast his lot with you? After all, all he will get by seating your sons in my position is more lands but he will earn the enmity of the rest of the North. But I will always help him hide his tail so he will be more inclined towards me. What do you think?" 

The Tullys look as if they have been slapped by the sigil of their house.

Eddard thinks it's a good look on them. It suits them. 

There is absolute silence in the solar and then Hoster Tully puffs up his chest with a deep breath. 

It's as if he is marshalling himself before speaking.

Let him try.

Eddard wasn't done with the pair yet.

He wanted to see what else they had to say.

"I don't believe you. I think you are bluffing." 

"My Lord Tully, didn't you hear what I said? All I have to do is fulfil my duties as a Lord Paramount. I must see this contract fulfilled. I will do that. I must look after the children of my brother. I will do that. I am not allowed to harm your daughter once she joins my family. I won't harm her. Others will do it for me."

"My brother. The servants. The other vassals. Everyone who wants to grasp power in the North will see to it that all the thorns at my side are removed and they will do it without expecting any rewards. They will do it to simply have a chance to sit with me and talk a few trade deals. They would do it to make me look at them favourably. They will do it to placate my anger if they step a toe out of line. I will simply sit back and watch the horrors that will be visited upon your daughter." 

He smirks and makes sure to make it as sarcastic as possible.

"My Lord Tully, you are getting on in age. Think about your son. Who do you think he will choose if he has a choice between his wife and children and a sister who is married off in a faraway place? Will he raise his banners against the might of the North? Will he want to destroy the peace that will follow this Rebellion no matter if the rebels win or lose?" 

His words seem to take out all the air from Hoster Tully's sails.

Meanwhile, the girl glares at him with such loathing that Eddard is sure that had it been possible, she would have picked up a sword to run him through. 

This was a danger he would have to look out for but he has another card up his sleeve and he thinks now is the time to show it to them.

It would be best if they put all thoughts about him and his family to rest before he leaves this solar.

"I know that your ward Petyr Baelish challenged my brother to a duel for your eldest daughter's hand. I also know that your younger daughter gave her maidenhead to him while he was up to the gills on medicine." 

"I am also sure that you wouldn't want this information to spread to others. Especially, to another Lord Paramount who has agreed to marry your younger daughter. If any harm comes to me and mine, I will make sure that this scandalous piece of information spreads far and wide in the Seven Kingdoms."

He takes a deep breath and continues, "If a war can be fought because the Crown Prince ran away with another Lord Paramount's betrothed, I am sure war will also be fought because a Lord Paramount hoodwinked another of his station and gave him used goods, so to say." 

His words have the intended effect and Hoster is furious. 

"Now, I think I have spent enough time in your hospitality and I thank you for that, no matter your intentions. But the Northern Host will start its march tomorrow and I hope to never see or hear from you and yours ever again. Good day to you." 

Finished with his words, he pushes away his chair and it makes a loud grating noise in the otherwise silent room and is all the louder for the silence that blankets them. 

Then he simply grins at them and he knows that it is an honest, boyish grin.

The one that Robert says attracts maidens and married women to him at the drop of a knut.

He also knows that the grin is unnerving after all the words said in the last hour. 

Still, that doesn't mean it detracts from his threats or on the course he has decided upon. 

He knows himself well enough to know that his silences don't mean that he has no words to say, that not willing to rush headlong into danger doesn't mean he doesn't have bloodlust. 

He is willing to live in peace but that doesn't mean he wouldn't pick up his sword and shield to protect those he loves. 

Being merciful doesn't mean he abhors or detests power or power plays.

It simply means that he enjoys simple things in life and finds joy in his family of choice because the ones of his blood left him out of theirs. 

The look of realisation and dawning horror on the Tullys face doesn't give him a sense of satisfaction but it calms his mind to know that they wouldn't cross him. 

The contract is left on the table and it doesn't bother him because he knows Hoster Tilly would never bother to demand anything of him ever again if he wants his house to prosper. 

He turns his back on them and walks out of the solar of a Lord Paramount without fear of being attacked in the back.


End file.
